A new Smithers market report - The Future of Global Ink Markets to 2030 – says demand for inks used in commercial graphics, publication, packaging, and label printing will reach 3.3 million metric tons in 2025, with a value of USD$35.8 billion, rising to USD$40.2 billion in 2030.
New Smithers report on 'The Future of Global Ink Markets to 2030' puts 2025 ink consumption at 3.3 million metric tonnes
The report predicts that packaging and food contact-compliant inks will become more important, as publication print volumes fall and graphics print sales remains largely static. Extra value will also come from the development of more aqueous inksets, alongside more bio-based ingredients and higher demand for radiation curing and inkjet inks.
Remaining competitive in this marketplace with raw material costs rising is increasingly dependent on innovation to address the evolving nature of the print sector.
The call for faster turnaround on shorter print runs is pushing several segments towards wider use of digital print. While HP Indigo retains a significant share of the toner printing market, most future growth will come from a new generation of faster, high-resolution inkjet presses.
Water-based and radiation-curing inks are increasingly popular for inkjet, including some hybrid UV-water chemistries. While these do require extra drying or curing time, they are proving more popular than solvent inks that require out gassing prior to finishing processes such as lamination. On single-pass inkjet configurations, using water-based inks creates a greater emphasis on integrating recirculation technology to prevent nozzles clogging, or inline scanning to detect and compensate for blockages.
With many press rooms increasing automation, and some even moving towards a fully ‘smart’ unmanned model, the report predicts that specially mixed spot colour inks will steadily be phased out in favour of fixed colour or extended gamut printing, to improve press uptime and reduce ink wastage.
This is already a standard approach for inkjet and most offset litho presses with extra stations for orange, green, and violet inks or coatings increasingly common, but the report suggests that flexo presses will now also increasingly move to this approach, with both BOBST and Mark Andy already offering it as an option. This does pose extra challenges however to standardize anilox rolls, plates and plate-mounting tapes to run without spot colours.
Sustainability in operations is a unifying trend seen in nearly all end-use markets for print. This is driving greater sales of water-based inks, already accounting for 18.5% of contemporary volume consumption, these will be the fastest growing of any ink chemistry through to 2030, increasing their market share to 19.7%. The main applications for these are as replacements for solvent-based inks on flexo and gravure press lines, and proprietary inksets for inkjet systems.
Alongside this there is new interest in bio-based ingredients and inks that encourage better recycling of paper and plastic print substrates. This is pushing formulations away from materials such as nitrocellulose that are difficult to de-ink in end-of-life processes.
Multiple guidelines are being produced to promote the recyclability of labels and packaging, and make recommendations on ink and coating selections. Currently they are voluntary, but by 2030 these will be codified in Europe under new design-for-recyclability criteria that will be adopted as part of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).
Simultaneously environmental claims are far more prevalent in marketing inks, highlighting the CO2 savings associated with reduced emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and faster, less energy-intensive drying.
In parallel, there is a major drive towards more recyclable materials, including more paper-based substrates and new mono-material polymer constructions. This is placing an emphasis on developing new chemistries to enable inks to wet and bond with low surface energy substrates, faster drying inks, and new coatings to protect the finished print film.
With many of these being used in food packaging there is more interest in developing inks for both direct and indirect food contact. This will lead to more dedicated UV-curing inks being developed for inkjet printing on labels, flexible packaging, and corrugated board. New water-based inks are attracting greater interest both for indirect food contact printing, and increasingly direct food contact as well.
The Future of Global Ink Markets to 2030
